I think they have been out long enough for people to have some experience of them by now so lets talk this month about those twisted beings from the forests of the empire: the beastmen.

I have some experience with this army (i've been using them) and here are a few thinks.The stone of spite is really nasty, keep a lookout for it, i'd say if the beastman player has anything approaching a magic phase, save two dice for this as long as anyone can have it, it really hurts our wizards if we let this through.

Watch out for the characters, a gorebull BSB will eat most of our troops quite happily, talisman of loec or starlance if you want to kill it, otherwise it is down to combat resolution or shooting (single bolts) to bring it down.The rare choices aren't THAT hard, you can take them down with shooting and get a few wounds in combat, minotaurs should be a concern, because their impact hits mean they kill some of us before ASF.The army has little to no shooting, so it is often easier to avoid combat and whittle the beastmen down than it is to beat them in a straight up fight (beating beasts in a 1:1 fight is actually quite hard)

panic is their biggest weakness. focus on their rare monsters and then the only thing worrying are their doombulls/gorebulls.

_________________For the dwarfs, there was only this. Hammerson met Grombrindal’s gaze, and the White Dwarf nodded slowly. If it must be done, let it be done well. Whether they were dead or alive, that was the only way dwarfs knew how to do anything.

I've only had one game against the new beasman. It was at 1750, so there were no big lords or anything.

I practically won the game in one turn with terror. Granted, there was an unusually high amount of bad leadership rolls, but my dragon mage flew into the center of the army and out of everyone's charge arcs. Terror tests + panic test from the burning head spell saw off almost everything. It was obscene. Not having much shooting available to the beastmen helped the dragon mage out - it's nice to be able to go mostly anywhere without worrying about the fragile mage being shot up.

So yeah. I was unusually lucky, but well placed terror / forced panic tests seem like they can do pretty well against these guys.

Wish I got to play against them some more so I'd have better advice. It looks like a fun list, too.

Yeah there is a big flaw in their army design, a bit sad really, psychology hurts them more than it huts a Greenskin army since beastmen seem to focus on high points units like minotaurs and big monsters, where greenskins can just sacrifice units and go on with it.

Watch out for those chariots. The new Razorgor chariot is T5 with 5W, fear, primal fury and a partridge in a pear tree. Ambush is not to be underestimated either, I popped 10 Gors behind a bolt thrower crew and rolled up the warmachine line after 12 shots failed to panic me. Try to eliminate anything that is screening a Doombull or Gorebull's unit, as they are frenzied. Throwing them off course is highly recommended, those characters can punch a hole through almost anything. A GB has T5 and 4W, 4 attacks base plus another for frenzy, and that's the hero. Most BM armies will try to run Mino characters as they give their own units frenzy (thus, they are immune to psych). Go magic heavy against them, you'll typically see a lone caddy in Beastmen armies.

Silver: most of the expensive units are immune to psych, or can be made that way if necessary (by the intelliget application of a couple of gorebulls), my 1999 is less leadership reliant than my high elves at the same value.

I've played the new Beasties twice now. Some insights. - Mino units on their own don't start frenzied, but gain it once they win a round of combat. So be careful sacrificing some bait to them. Then again. Could be worth it to draw them away later.- The mobile stone thrower is a nasty surprise- Keep a unit of seaguard or a chariot on your backline to guard your rear from ambushing units- Ungor skirmishers are cheap as chips, so he can afford many. Little units of five draw out your deployment drops, screen units, draw fire, hunt warmachines... Very useful and annoying little buggers

Will post more later when I play them again. I don't recall everything. They seem to be a fair enough book. Nothing over the top. Interesting options.

_________________What happened to you Ulthuan? You used to be so cool...

As an aside two questions about the gorebull/doombull's slaughterer's call.

If a doombull joins a unit and then leaves do they keep frenzy? (i would say no except..)If you answered no to the above: if a doombull joins a unit of minotaurs, they win a round of combat and they he leaves, what happens to the minos? do they loose frenzy? keep frenzy and loose the additional attack, or loose the lot?

first I'd say no second one, I'd say they lose neither since they gain frenzy and the extra attacks from their own bloodgreed rule not because of the slaughterers call of the gorebull/doombulleven though already being frenzied thanks to the presence of the gorebull/doombull speeds up the process.

The key to beating beasts in combat (as opposed to with shooting/magic) is to hit them in the flanks. Units like minotaurs, razorgors or any unit with a minotaur character can do a lot of damage in frontal assaults and those minos just keep getting better. You have to hit them in the flanks to break them and overrun.

Luckily, due to the weaknesses of minotaurs, this is very easy to achieve vs them. Place an eagle right in front of them on an angle, take the charge, get slaughtered and watch as the minos finish 1-6" further into your charge range and angled to expose a flank perfectly to your troops.

At present (7th ed), their magic isn't very powerful. We'll have to wait and see if anything changes in 8th to make their default movement spell more useful. If so, their magic phase could become a bit of a threat.

If I was playing my beasts vs HE, I would bring at least 5 core chariots and the magic item that halves BS for one turn, as well as 2 units of minos 4 strong with a mino character in each. I wouldn't bother with beastmen at all other than a bodyguard unit for my scroll caddies and frenzy screeners for my minos. They would be totally outclassed in combat vs anything with ASF. Throw in a ghorgon to soak up artillery/missile fire and my army should reach the HE lines pretty much unscathed. Sure, they can't do well vs a dragon lord, but vs any other HE army they have the potential to be competitive.